Ever heard the saying "Cleaning your house while you have kids is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing"? I don't believe there has ever been a truer statement made!
I have been putting off my house work because I simply don't like doing it for a couple of weeks now. I was keeping the laundry and the dishes done and that was about it. The dust was actually starting to look at me as I walked past.....staring....with little beady eyes.....accusing me of being a terrible house cleaner. The weird thing was when it talked to me, I heard my mother's voice. Let me tell why this is such a big deal. I come from a line of OCD neat freaks. It's getting less with each generation so I'm not as bothered by a messy house as my mother or her mother. My grandmother's house is immaculate every day, all day. You could literally eat off her floors. My mom's house is nice and neat and 99% of the time picked up and clean. My house is liveable. But I have two small children.
So back to my messy house. I decided Monday I had to get some cleaning done, I couldn't take it anymore. Then something else happened. I think my grandmother somehow possessed me and I decided to clean out closets, drawers and cabinets because we had way too much junk. I started in my bathroom. I got the bathroom clean and opened up my walk in closet that was no longer walk in. I started pulling out clothes, shoes, purses, and hats. Just as I get my closet all torn apart, that point-of-no-return, the nine month old decides he's going to through the biggest fit he's ever thrown. I pick him up and he hushes. I get him calmed and then set him down. He looks at me, his lip quivering, tears in his eyes, but he's quiet. I get back in my closet, he starts all over. For two hours, while I'm sorting through clothes that are too little or that I don't wear anymore, he's screaming. I'm doing my closet as fast as I can, but he just kept screaming.
I finally get done with the closet and get him settled down. So I tackle the drawers and cabinets in the bathroom. This doesn't take me as long as my closet, but while I'm going through this stuff, Connor comes in and thinks all the stuff I have in the floor is for him to play with. Every time I go to look for something or put something back, he's got it, pretending it's a race car or a monster he has to kill.
By the time I'm done with the bathroom (that's the closet, three drawers, three cabinets, the usual scrubbing down of the two sinks, the tub and the toilet, then vacuuming) it's lunch time. Usually I can do both the boys lunch and nap at the same time. But after Kenny's big fit, he's sleepy, so I feed him and get him down for a nap before Connor. By the time I wrestle lunch down Connor, get him down for a nap and eat my own lunch, Kenny's ready to get up.
I spend the rest of the day and evening doing mine and my husbands bedroom. Dusting, straightening up, cleaning out our bedside tables and vacuuming. The entire time having to deal with the kids and the dog right up under my feet. Because Connor likes to chase the dog and the dog will run to me for protection.
Tuesday morning I decide to tackle the dining room. I've got a cabinet and a hutch that needed going through and cleaning out. Luckily my mother in law was home and let Connor play at her house while I worked. (She lives right beside us) But Kenny uses me as a jungle gym while I'm in the floor cleaning out the hutch. I'm able to get the dining room and part of the kitchen clean before lunch time. This time lunch goes smoothly, which is rare. I don't question it, I just enjoy it. I get them down, eat my lunch and enjoy a few minutes of peace before getting back to work.
By this time the need to clean out cabinets, drawers and closets has left and I'm done. I decide to do just my regular cleaning and continue the cleaning out some other time. I do dishes, scrub down the counters, dust off my pretties, or as we say here in the south, my purties, and make tea. The next room on the list is the small laundry room at the back door.
By this time the kids are up and right up under me again. We keep an 'outside toy box' in the laundry room that holds all the toys the boys are only allowed to play with outside: sidewalk chalk, bubble blowers, basketballs, soccer balls, and the quilt we use for picnics. Somehow the bigger things have ended up on bottom and the smaller things are falling out the top. So I pull everything out to get it back right and here comes Connor again. "Can I play with that? Can I play with this? Oh, this is my favorite, I want to play with it!" I calmly (because they haven't driven me nuts yet today like they did yesterday) tell him, "No, those are only for outside." So you can guess his next question, "Can I go outside and play?" again, calmly, "No, I'm cleaning right now and it's cold outside." So he starts whining, a new things he thinks will get him his way, even though it never has he keeps employing it. I tell him to stop whining he's not going to go outside. He keeps on until I finally shout at him to go play in his room before he gets in real trouble. He disappears. The whole time this went on, Kenny's snuck up behind and is playing with the 'outside' toys. He's learning how to use his brother as a distraction to do what he wants.
I get everything put back, straighten up the shoes and start to sweep. Kenny's sitting in the middle of the floor grinning at me. I pick him up and move him out of the laundry room and before I can get back in the there, get the broom and start sweeping, he's back, grinning at me. He thinks it's a game. I move him again, run in there and sweep as much as I can before he's back. We don't have a baby gate any more and I keep forgetting to pick one up. I'm regretting this as I move from sweeping to mopping. Because now every time I move him, he starts crying. I get finished in there only to come find that Connor has destroyed the living room. I think he was trying to see if all his toys would fit in the living room.
So today I'm working on the rest of the house. Hopefully I can get most of it done today if not all and rest the next few days. So far I've been able to keep the rooms I completed picked up and clean. But I know they won't stay that way. Usually when I get done with the last room, it's time to start all over again. See, shoveling snow while it's still snowing.
